A Match Made in Heaven?
by Rosa Cotton
Summary: Jill and Edmund? Jill and Peter? ! Who would have thought... Certainly not Eustace!


Disclaimer: _The Chronicles of Narnia_, all characters, places, and related terms belong to C.S. Lewis.

Author's Note: The idea for this story was planted when I read JealousOfTheMoon's hysterical fic, _Wiggle Woes_. Here be some out-of-characterness and some tiny modern touches. Eustace is 15.

Dedicated: For **EstellaB** and **JealousOfTheMoon**.

Summary: Jill and Edmund?! Jill and Peter?!?! Who would have thought...? Certainly not Eustace!

* * *

A Match Made in Heaven?

Eustace laid down his pencil and sighed. He was sprawled on his bed (well, really Peter's, but he wasn't back from university yet), working on a poem. It was the summer holidays; yet he had gotten tagged with schoolwork all the same. He hated it when his teachers said they hoped he would improve in such-and-such an area during the following year, meaning he'd work on it a _little_ during the holidays; the case this time was his poetry.

He wished he could just enjoy himself. He and Pole were visiting the Pevensies for a few weeks. Pole had often gone out with Lucy and Susan on "girl outings." Her teachers never told her they hoped she'd improve on something the next year. Eustace envied her not having to bother with schoolwork. He wanted to finish his as soon as possible. He missed not being able to hang out with his cousins as much as he had hoped. And he had not seen Pole as much either…

The boy shook his head swiftly. Maybe he should take a break. Shifting into a sitting position, he stretched, rising his arms above his head, yawning. He began to get to his feet, dropping his hands back to his sides. A groan escaped his mouth as he accidentally sent the seemingly ever-growing pile of papers flying, scattering them over the floor.

"Oh, bother!" he grumbled.

Sighing with self-suffering, he crouched down and gathered up the papers. Eustace paused as he reached for one. This wasn't his. The writing on the paper was in cursive, very elegant looking. His cursive was terrible. It wasn't Pole's handwriting either.

"Must have grabbed it by mistake last night," he mused to himself.

After dinner the previous night he, Pole, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy had all spent the rest of the evening at the dinner table. Edmund and Lucy had read while the others wrote. Eustace had retired early, frustrated with Edmund's teasing, claiming he soon would be a poetry-sprouting Romeo. He must have somehow gathered the paper up with his own.

The boy was about to put the paper aside when he spotted the word "Jill" near the top of the page. Curious, he peered closer.

"_Jill smiled shyly and blushed when Edmund sat next to her on the sofa."_

Eustace's eyebrows shot up. What on earth…? Self-consciously, he slowly sat down on the floor, scanning the rest of the sheet. Whatever this was, it seemed to be a story of sorts. He reached the bottom of the paper.

"'_Ready to go, boys?'_ _Mr. Pevensie asked, sticking his head into the living room. _

"_Eustace leapt to his feet with an eager nod. 'Let's go!' he said excitedly as he crossed the room._

"_Edmund got up as well, more slowly and less excitedly than his cousin had. He glanced over at Jill. 'See you later.'_

"'_Have a good time,' she said._

"'_Thanks.' A slow smile spread from one corner of his mouth to the other, and swiftly he tugged gently on some locks of Jill's hair before he left the room._

"_Jill gazed after him and giggled."_

Eustace lowered the paper to his lap, eyes wide, mouth hanging open. What was this?! Pole never blushed or acted shy or giggled because of a boy. And never because of Edmund, of all people! There was no way they fancied each other; they had never acted like this – he glanced at the paper – around each other. The boy stiffened and frowned. Wait a minute…

There had been that one thing last week when Edmund had gone to meet some friends. Now thinking about it, Eustace recalled his cousin had tugged on Pole's and Lucy's hair on his way out. But he'd only done that in a teasing manner. There hadn't been a shared glance between him and Pole, had there?

Eustace put his head in his hands and shook it. He was getting worked up…over nothing. This was just some rubbish writing. It wasn't true, just fiction. Ji—_Pole_ didn't really act like she had in the story. And Edmund did not like her that way. He should forget about this. He had to finish his poem.

He resumed picking up the papers. An unfamiliar cursive script caught his eye.

"Aha!" he exclaimed loudly. He almost hurt himself in his haste to snatch up the few sheets of paper that wasn't his attempts at poetry. His eyes darted quickly over them, hoping to find out if these were before or after the sheet he'd already read.

"_Peter's voice was tense, 'So, I understand you and Eustace are now…' He cocked his head._

"_Jill whirled around to face him. 'Me and Eus— Who told you that?' She felt herself blushing to the roots of her hair. He was standing much closer to her than expected and she had never seen him look at her as he did now. _

"_He shrugged. 'Lucy told me you two had gone out on a date. And…well, Eustace did kiss you goodnight – on the cheek – two minutes ago,' he pointed out._

"'_Ohhhh, um, ye-s-s-s, he, he always does t-t-that,' she blabbed. "But we…that is…he and I are…I mean not…' she trailed off, shaking her head._

"'_Are not?' Peter repeated, his face relaxing slightly as he moved forward a step._

"'_No-o-o._ _We do like each other, but not like that. We…we both fancy others,' Jill confessed, finding her shoelaces exceptionally interesting._

"_A light chuckle caused her to glance upward for a moment. Peter was smiling softly at her._

"'_The old make-them-jealous-by-going-out-with-someone-else ploy?_ _Did it work?' he asked, taking another step._

"_For a moment Jill recalled Lucy's forced smile when she and Eustace had returned from their date. How Lucy's face had glowed when Eustace hugged her goodnight and whispered something in her ear a couple of minutes ago. She met Peter's curious gaze. 'I can't tell you,' she answered with a shrug. 'Hopefully,' she added._

"'_It did work, very well.'_

"_She gave him a double take. 'It did?' she whispered. _

"_He nodded. 'Lucy was quite upset, though she tried her best to hide it when she told me. I was so, so jealous.'_

"_Jill's face turned red as an apple, and her heart pounded. 'What makes you think my going out with Eustace has anything to do with you?' she demanded._

"_Peter reached for her hand. 'Jill, Jill, Jill. It certainly wasn't for Edmund now, was it?'_

"_Instead of denying it, Jill found herself asking, 'Were you really jealous?'_

"'_Very jealous._ _You and Eustace have been friends so long, for one moment I thought you really did like him,' he explained. _

"_Wordlessly she shook her head and smiled when Peter tucked some strands of hair behind her ear."_

Eustace looked away from the paper he held in his shaking hand, feeling drained and nauseated. Pole and Peter? Peter Pevensie? High King of Narnia Peter? Peter, who-had-treated-Jill-like-a-sister, that Peter?! They were much too different, barely really really really knew each other, and there was a big age difference between them. Jill and Peter… The possibility was too much for Eustace. The thought of her and Edmund was more believable, but _barely_.

This was the sort of thing he might find in one of those sappy romance novels Susan loved reading. How she and others could enjoy reading books like that he had no idea. He glanced again briefly at the paper. Him, pining after Lucy? Eustace choked. There was nothing wrong with Lucy, but he would never see her like that -- not in a million years.

The boy struggled to his feet. Story or not, there was only one way to get some peace of mind. Clutching the paper in his hand, Eustace left his and Edmund's room and knocked on Jill's door down the hall. Failing to get a response, he made his way downstairs.

Stopping in the doorway of the living room, he was greeted with the sight of Jill sitting between her older sister Elizabeth and Susan on the sofa. The three appeared deep in discussion before they noticed him.

"Hello, Eustace," Elizabeth said politely.

He nodded simply.

"Are you all right?" Jill asked with a light frown.

The boy wondered if he looked as bad as he felt. Again he nodded. "What are you doing?" he attempted to make conversation.

"We were just advising Jill about the party next weekend," Susan spoke up.

Eustace drew a blank for a minute before he remembered. The party, right. One of Susan's friends' parties which she miraculously had talked her siblings, Jill, and himself into attending with her.

"Now," Susan continued, drawing Eustace's attention, "all you need to do is drop some sort of hint to Edmund that you'd like to go to the party with him and, mark my words, he will ask you."

For a moment Eustace tried unsuccessfully to fill his lungs with oxygen. Eyes widening, he listened intently.

"Susan! We're all going. What's the difference if I 'go with him' or not?" Jill asked, confused.

"It is a great deal of difference," Elizabeth said. "By going with him, you'll be considered his girl."

"His girl?" Eustace and Jill spoke as one.

"You are almost sixteen; it is about time you had yourself a beau," Susan smiled dreamily.

"I-I suppose," Jill said hesitantly, eyes darting from Susan to Eustace to Elizabeth.

Her sister squeezed her arm. "Now, you should really wear your hair up. You'll look older."

Susan shook her head. "She should curl it. You would look adorable, Jill. Ed and Peter like curls," she added conspicuously.

That was the last straw.

Eustace fired his question, "Do you want to go with Ed to the party, Jill?"

He could not interpret the expression that fleeted across her face. "It would probably be nice…"

"Nice? You two would make a wonderful couple!" Susan gushed to the embarrassed girl. She looked at her cousin. "Don't you think so?"

He nodded once, slowly, jerkily, a roar in his ears. "Yes, wonderful," he grunted.

He spun on his heel to leave only to turn back sharply a second later. He marched across the room to where the girls sat. Halting in front of Jill, Eustace glared at her fiercely. Putting his hands on her shoulders, he swooped down, planting a firm, lingering kiss on her lips. When he pulled back, he shook her lightly.

"You are not going to the party with Ed or Peter or anyone else," he declared breathlessly with a dark frown.

Jill mutely nodded in assent, blushing, her eyes bright and a smile breaking out. Eustace's stomach filled with butterflies. Impulsively he took her hand in his.

"How 'bout we go for a walk?"

"All right, Eustace," Jill agreed shyly as she followed him out.

Elizabeth and Susan watched the two leave the room with wide, unblinking eyes. Only after the front door had closed with an extra loud bang did they turn to each other.

"Mission accomplished!" Susan crowed, sharing a high five with her friend.

Elizabeth retrieved the piece of paper Eustace had dropped on the floor. "I knew my writing would come in handy one of these days," she said with a laugh.

THE END


End file.
